Princess Elisabeth has completed first year of master’s degree but Trump administration’s crackdown may jeopardise studies

Princess Elisabeth, the 23-year-old future queen of Belgium, has just completed her first year at Harvard University but the ban imposed by Donald Trump’s administration on foreign students studying there could jeopardise her continued attendance.

The US president’s administration revoked Harvard’s ability to enrol international students on Thursday, and is forcing current foreign students to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status in the US, while also threatening to expand the crackdown to other colleges.

“Princess Elisabeth has just completed her first year. The impact of [the Trump administration’s] decision will only become clearer in the coming days/weeks. We are currently investigating the situation,” said a spokesperson for the Belgian royal palace, Lore Vandoorne.

  • Ginny [they/she]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 hours ago

    I am anti-monarchy and I don’t particularly give a shit that this woman has to change universities or whatever, but quite frankly I’m shocked by the amount of comments here hoping for horrific things to happen to a woman just for being born into a family they don’t like.

    • poopkins@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      It’s the toxic cesspool of the anonymous internet. All these communities are the same.

    • Clbull@lemmy.world
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      I thought the royals in mainland Europe were generally well-liked? I’m only basing this on the lack of negative attention they get compared to the British royal family.

      • Ginny [they/she]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        I’m British so I can’t really say, but I think if not more well-liked, they’re at least more low key. Britain made its royal family part of its brand, and with that comes a lot more coverage, better or worse.

  • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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    On the one hand I wish anything bad that’s possible on anyone who’s royalty. On the other hand this might shine a light on Trumps bullshit in a way that even his supporters might start questioning.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      even his supporters might start questioning

      Lol nope. Have you ever met a trump supporter who didn’t have resentment towards higher education? I sure haven’t.

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        Luckily I live far away from them, so I haven’t met any. But yeah maybe I’m still too optimistic because of it.

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          You definitely have. Whenever people meet me they feel the need to tell me which American politicians they support for some reason. And a non-zero percent of them in essentially every country like Trump. And of Chinese people I’ve met it’s 100% for some reason lol

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    Someone told me this whole attack on Harvard is all because Harvard rejected Baron trump and while I haven’t looked into it that would make so much sense

      • Infinite@lemmy.zip
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        4 hours ago

        Narcissists are likely to treat offspring as a personal extension into the future.

  • Genius@lemmy.zip
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    8 hours ago

    Why do we care about whether a princess can study in another country? Fuck princesses, they’re nepo baby billionaires plus a “divine right” to oppress people.

    • Eximius@lemmy.world
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      Hey, don’t put any random rich-ish person from Europe into the same US billionaire basket

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          You’re either overestimating the Belgium crown’s power or underestimating the power of money. Also: “Belgium’s monarchy has topped the list as Europe’s poorest royal family, with the Belgian monarch King Philippe estimated to have a fortune of about €12.4 million”

          • reminder5444@lemmings.world
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            Ah ah ouais le pauvre ti’chou. Seulement 12 millions.

            Un vrai zom du peuple dit donc. Moi Je vais devoir payer 40000 balles d’impots le mois prochain et j’ai pas le premier sous.

            • nyctre@lemmy.world
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              Never said she was poor, just not “more power than money can buy”.

              Also, you’re paying more in taxes than many people’s yearly gross income so maybe you’re not so poor yourself so… Yeah…

              • reminder5444@lemmings.world
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                Not really. I’m freelancer. And unlike the other idiots I don’t get a 50 grands society car tax free.

                I don’t have anything against paying taxes per se. Corruption is rampant, elitism is still a huge problem, I don’t want to pay for royalties, f35s and crony politicians. Meanwhile I can’t see my nurse of a mum because they’re understaffed

                • aidan@lemmy.world
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                  You’re definitely earning more than me, but I’m also a freelancer. So much of at least Czech and Polish tax code is set up to make it far more expensive to run a small business or be self employed, than to work for a company

                • nyctre@lemmy.world
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                  What do you mean not really? Minimum wage in most countries is below 25k/year. If you’re playing 40k in taxes, it means you’re earning a lot more than that. Median is somewhere around 40-50k, so you’re earning more than that as well. You have no idea how privileged you are if you think you have it bad.

              • reminder5444@lemmings.world
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                4 hours ago

                Lmao you’re fucking naive if you think their wealth is captured by their nominal bank account. Do you know how influence work, yes? Corruption, traffic of influence, all that?

          • reminder5444@lemmings.world
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            5 hours ago

            I mean they’re obviously loaded. But on the other hand, they are the same family as every European royals.

            You don’t need to be nominally rich when you can just say a word and public money will flow the way you want.

            A friend tried to get subventions from the palace. It was for a theater piece for disfranchised kid.

            They answered that social mixing was bad.

  • LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.ee
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    9 hours ago

    Honestly. If a couple bourgeoisie take some strays for Trump’s awful policies I’m not gonna shed a tear. Who the fuck cares about a Belgium queen? I care about the working class kid that isn’t gonna graduate. Fuck the Queen.

    • aidan@lemmy.world
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      I care about the working class kid that isn’t gonna graduate.

      There’s a near zero amount of working class kids studying abroad at Harvard

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      This however highlights the fact that foreign students used to be a source of revenue for the USA. This is wealthy European money that was getting spent in America but now will likely be spent somewhere else.

      This is also denying American Harvard business students the opportunity to establish lucrative connections with European money. You’ve heard of “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”? Poor Harvard students on a full scholarship who plan on setting up their own business someday could have benefitted from being classmates with the future queen of Belgium.

      My point being that even if you fully subscribe to “America first”, this is still a really dumb policy that’s shooting America in the foot. Foreign students studying in America were, by definition, bringing money into America. No longer.

      • LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.ee
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        Your points are speaking to a Trump voter that would never even care about those things because they would never actually apply to them. They live in a contradiction that doesn’t apply to what you’re saying.

        You literally replied with talking points that only benefit rich well off bourgeoisie. I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make or who you’re trying to convince. Because this definitely doesn’t appeal to the me (looking at this from a class perspective) or the idiot Trump voter (looking at this from a “fuck the elite” perspective).

        The later of which is just, on average, an uneducated working class idiot that thinks we live in a meritocracy but blames the “elite” for their position in it. They lack class analysis to actually understand where to direct that anger. But Harvard and “Queens” are the definition of that elite to them.

        Who is this article supposed to appeal to? That’s my question. This is just garbage puff that distracts from the real problems with Trump’s policies.

        It only appeals to well off petty bourgeois Liberals that have nothing better to care about than some “royal” being effected by a policy that they are only, at best, collateral damage to.

        • Bravo@eviltoast.org
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          See, that’s bullshit because you can’t be outraged that Harvard admits foreigners but also pretend to not care about or be affected by Harvard at all.

    • drawb@lemmy.ml
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      I understand. But Trump seems to like being invited by royalty (at least UK royalty). Also visited her father when in Belgium during his 1st term. Probably not, but if he isn’t welcome because of this (among other things) next time, Trump could do something you do care about. He acts much more bourgeoisie than this princess (not yet queen) seems to act.

  • Zenith@lemm.ee
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    13 hours ago

    Why does he have the power to ban people from going to a private university?

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    19 hours ago

    I’m sure this will work wonders for American soft power on the world stage.

    Having a literal fucking queen with fond memories of America from her youth is political influence that money cannot buy. What an idiotic fumble.

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      Belgian chiming in, people here really have* developed a strong distaste for the US. I’d say 90% of people I know don’t care at all for the monarchy, but this is blasted in the news as an example no one is safe from USA’s shenanigans.

      Professors and Universities are condemning this, it’s such a major step in the wrong direction once again.

      • reminder5444@lemmings.world
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        Belgian here.

        Fuck the queen. Her daddy killed a guy on a drunken night in the ardennes. The french treatment is needed

      • LupusBlackfur@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        people here really have* developed a strong distaste for the US

        And rightly and deservedly so…
        🤷‍♂️ 🙄 🖕

        • kernelle@0d.gs
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          17 hours ago

          I personally know two people who’ve cancelled US trips, one of which is because she’s gay.

          Really wondering when they’ll realise just how fucked they are.

          • cmbabul@lemmy.world
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            14 hours ago

            When you say they, do you mean Americans paying attention, Trump voters and supporters, or the assholes making these decisions?

            The first group are painfully aware of how fucked we are, the second MIGHT when they lose their home/job or have a loved one hauled away to a concentration camp but even then they might never because pro American propaganda has burrowed itself so deeply into their minds they truly believe the exceptionalism horseshit, the third either knows and is fine with it because they are just trying to consolidate power or is one of the ignorant true believers like the second group.

            I fucking hate my country

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              11 hours ago

              Mostly the people making the decisions, but don’t feel too bad, the EU is rapidly shifting to the right as well. The main positive takeaway is I’ve never seen the EU this unified.

              • cmbabul@lemmy.world
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                10 hours ago

                Really hope y’all are able to right that specific ship, we’re gonna need help but I also just wouldn’t wish this on anyone

      • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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        10 hours ago

        every day that passes it gets harder and harder to just say “lol sorry” and the world to have the memory of a goldfish and just reply “ahhhh water under the bridge” as soon as a suitcase of money is waved under our collective noses

          • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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            5 hours ago

            first time you can almost forgive as an accident… second time means it wasn’t an accident and the society is built around that being viable: you never know when it’ll happen again, and that’s not a viable strategy for long-term investment of either capital or influence

            BUT… governments and businesses have a short memory and bad risk evaluation where money is concerned

  • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    what a toxic piece of shit, he is like the most obnoxious type of kid who screams, flails arms and legs when he loses a game and gets confronted about his shitty behaviour. except he is also the president of the US

  • Ymer@feddit.dk
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    18 hours ago

    Of all the people suffering from Trump’s deranged actions, European royalty are probably not the most deserving of pity.

    • THB@lemmy.world
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      I think you’re missing the point. It’s not about pitying her, but bringing more attention to the utterly stupid things happening

      • Ymer@feddit.dk
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        And I think you’re missing my point. To the Crown Princess, this is a mild inconvenience and will probably eventually turn in to an interesting anecdote. She can slide right into any other Ivy League university if she wants to, or she can head home to a local university without worrying about applications, grants or anything else of that boring stuff. To many other students, this might wreak havoc on their academic careers and their economies. That is some of the utterly stupid stuff that should be brought to attention. Tell me their stories.

        Admittedly, I’m a European republican, i.e. in the non-US sense of the word, but still. This article reads more like a gossip piece than international news.

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          Belgian here, one who still has some sympathy for the royals, but that is not the point. I sincerely hope no special provisions are made for her and she makes a bit of a stink about having to go off to a non US university. Europe should be cutting as many ties with the US right now as it can. The princess being there at all really doesn’t give a good message.

        • THB@lemmy.world
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          I did not miss your point, I agree completely and couldn’t care less about this princess. The point of articles like this is to get more general public eyes on these issues. The point of this is to get some racist white Americans to maybe actually pay attention.

          • LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.ee
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            This is literally only for some old pearl clutching lifelong Democrat voters. “Oh no not the poor queen” is not something anyone that voted for Trump would say. Ironically, it’s gonna be one thing progressives are gonna have in common with Trump voters. We both don’t give a fuck about this queen. Trumps entire base is built on fake working class outrage.

            This article and story does nothing to change any minds.

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          something i’ve learned by observing people who like the swedish royal family is that they all really like them. there are no casual royalists. the fact that this happens to a royal introduces this issue to an entire group of voters whose entire news intake consists solely of “what did the royal family do today”.

          personally i would fully support converting my country to a republic if we hadn’t designed our entire legal system to make the head of state completely useless. instating a president would put a politician in charge of the country, instead of the way it is now where the king basically doesn’t know what goes on in the riksdag and has no say in what happens there. so nobody can even begin to aspire to lead the country, which i like.

          the exorbitant amounts of money the royals get from the state is a bit of an issue, but i do kind of like the novelty. one of my favourite dedications of a book is from Fairy Tales for Children Over 18, which is dedicated to “Mr. The King, whose mere existence proves that we live in fairyland”

        • njm1314@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          Plenty of people are telling those stories, so the question really is how come you’re reading this one instead of those.

          • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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            Because newspapers like the Guardian don’t publish them when there are princesses available and Lemmings upvote articles about the royals like this is going to be a major turning point rather than the exact point Trump would love to spread far and wide.

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    19 hours ago

    If the Trump admin wasn’t obviously a fascist dictatorship I might be able to feel good about Belgian royalty being treated the same as anyone else. However, this has nothing to do with traditional American values of an even playing field, because the Trump admin just refuses to recognize any royalty except Trump.

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    17 hours ago

    Either not white enough for trump or hasn’t payed the orange shitnozzle enough homage.

    Coin toss but odds are on not enough $$

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    We finally found an immigrant that deserves to be sent to a prison in El Salvador. Other than Musk, that is.

    • Jhnd@lemmy.wtf
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      Apparently, you know something about our crown princess we don’t know yet. Or are you just insulting a random person you don’t know anything about?

        • Takapapatapaka@lemmy.world
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          Sure, fuck royalty, etc. But is really royalty the ones who are setting and getting the taxes in Belgium (genuine question) and if yes, is really the to-be queen the one who did it (rethorical question, i’d be surprised if that was the cas)?

          • reminder5444@lemmings.world
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            Let’s say their political influence is informal. It’s nonetheless very much existent. Not her specifically.

            Also I’m still pissed because as a kid we waited for a whole rainy afternoon just so we could see those two assholes weaves at us peasants for two minutes.

  • wpb@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    I guess something good came out of a really really shitty thing then.

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    19 hours ago

    Future queen I guess means she is a princess. Just say that. I did not know Belgium still has vestiges of monarchy. That does put a damper on the judgment from Europe over the U.S. having Trump. Also can’t forget Leopold. Fuck that guy

    • Null User Object@lemmy.world
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      Future queen I guess means she is a princess. Just say that.

      “Future queen” is more specific than “princess.”

      They call her Princess Elisabeth repeatedly in the article, but she’s not just “a princess.”

      The princess is heir to the Belgian throne, as the eldest of four children born to King Philippe and Queen Mathilde.

      Her siblings are also a princess and two princes, but she’s the eldest, and thus the only one that can currently be called “future queen.”

    • x00z@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      Belgium’s monarchy is mostly ceremonial. Most of the power lies with parliament.

      • unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz
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        18 hours ago

        I get that. I still think it’s ridiculous. Not that echewing monarchy has done so well in the u.s. either.

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            18 hours ago

            Would that I could control what I worry about including the governments of faraway lands. Also did I mention monarchies are very silly? I will still laugh at them as I weep at the tragedies here a at home

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              Your argument wasn’t that they are silly, useless or ridiculous. This was your argument:

              That does put a damper on the judgment from Europe over the U.S. having Trump

              You’re implying it is hypocrite. But it isn’t. European monarchies have close to no power over their parliaments. So your point is invalid because a monarchy would change almost nothing in how a European country is governed and how that ties with judgement towards Trump.

              • unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz
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                No, it wasn’t a direct comparison of government systems. I’m not here for the political theory. Perhaps I should have checked in with you personally before I shitposted about the silliness of monarchies.

                • x00z@lemmy.world
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                  Ah yes the good ol’ “i was trolling all along” argument

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        16 hours ago

        Okay? So where are you telling the top commenter that having soft power with a ceremonial monarchy is pointless?

        Why is everyone getting up and arms like it matters if they have no actual power?

    • zewm@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      I guess you’re one of those doesn’t read the article types.

      • unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz
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        No I did, doesn’t change anything except exaggerate my dismay. Trump and the ivy leagues and the princesses can all just go away

    • chingadera@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      The king of America poses a minor threat to the princess of Belgium.

      Does any of this make me get paid what im worth and left the fuck alone?

      Tune in at 6pm PST for “Why do I give a shit?”

      • chingadera@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Sure has a lot of downvotes, I’m sorry but is there a nuanced view I can hear about that makes me forget that the only war is a class war and both of these motherfuckers are against me and anyone else that is reading this?

        • LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.ee
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          There’s a lot of libs that run off of identity politics here and are completely delusional in thinking that this somehow will connect with Trump voters since she’s white.

          What lack of material analysis does to a mother fucker.